How to use dictionaries (and not only)

For beginners, the best dictionary would be Abbyy Lingvo lingvolive.ru , because in it the meanings of words are not piled up like in some electronic dictionaries - the first two meanings of the word will be most relevant. In fact, Lingvo is an old Soviet dictionaries in digital form. For any advanced students, Lingvo is evil, because many values ​​from the third position continue to work only in some context, but the essence of the word does not reflect. For example, enter the word expect. The 3rd meaning is “to think.” In some context it will be true, for example: I expect him to come at 5. But you cannot use this word interchangeably with think, for example: I think she is beautiful. The phrase I expect she is beautiful will have a completely different meaning, because the basic meaning of expect is “expect”.

I repeat: Lingvo is the best dictionary for beginners, for advanced students it can do much harm, as practice shows. Advanced students can use Lingvo to translate the names of birds, plants, animals. Because if you enter the word finch into the English-English dictionary, you will be told that this is a bird from the finch family, feeding mainly on seeds and living mainly in the Northern Hemisphere, usually have a conical beak. For immediate purposes, this is a completely meaningless interpretation. Lingvo will not be wise and just tell you that finch is a finch. The pages of the online version of Lingvo are not overloaded with scripts and open very quickly.

For the translation of technical terms, the best dictionary will be www.multitran.ru. The values ​​in it are distributed by topics, for example, “mechanical engineering”, “chemical industry”, etc. The dictionary is rapidly updated as technology develops. But Multitran would not recommend to beginners at all: this dictionary is like a dangerous razor: it works reliably, but it is easy to cut yourself. The fact is that Multitran contains an inconceivable number of meanings for each lexical unit and a beginner will simply drown in them. It’s better to switch to Multitran when you already have some minimal experience with the language. In addition, almost all Russian-speaking specialists sit on this dictionary, whose activities are somehow related to languages, so the online version can slow down from 9:00 to 18:00 Moscow time.

Serious language learners would advise switching to English-English dictionaries as soon as you feel that you are able to use them. I recommend www.wiktionary.org (Wikipedia application): pages are not overloaded with unnecessary information, so they switch instantly. The wording is intelligible; examples of the use of words and expressions are often given. It is very convenient for finding idioms whose exact sound you do not remember. Let's say you need to find a stable expression blue wall of silence. You do not remember the expression itself, remember only two words from there - wall and silence. Enter these two words in the search bar, press enter, done. The dictionary did not find a single exact match, but deduced all the articles containing (primarily in the headings) these two words. Please - already in the second position we see the desired expression.

Most serious attention should www.thefreedictionary.comIf you are looking for individual words in it, then next to the word you will see 2 flags - British and American. Click on British, the British voice acting sounds, American - American. Minus of the dictionary - pages overloaded with scripts, switch slowly. Plus: it contains a fantastic amount of idioms (including those that are not very common and obsolete). Searching idioms by keywords in it is also possible. In addition, if you enter a single word in the search bar and then click on the Idioms button, the dictionary will display all idioms containing this word. The definitions of the meaning of idioms in thefreedictionary and in wiktionary are different, they can be more understandable and less understandable. Sometimes for a confident understanding of some idiom these two English-English dictionaries may not be enough, then you can try using other online dictionaries, for example,www.webster-dictionary.org

Almost all world-recognized dictionaries have a free online version: Oxford, Cambridge, Collins, etc.

It will not be superfluous to mention www.urbandictionary.comThe dictionary is very well represented British and American slang. It is written by everyone who is not lazy, so one of the definitions of the word "blockhead," say, could be something like: "John Matthews from such and such a school in such and such a city in the US state." Naturally, this definition was entered by John's classmates for the sole purpose of having fun, throwing links to him to each other. The undoubted advantage of the dictionary is that live slang enters it as soon as it appears - long before it is included in official dictionaries. This can be very useful when watching TV shows that are filming in the current period. Another important plus: under each value there are Like and Dislike buttons, which native English speakers are not too lazy to press. Comparing the number of likes / dislikes,we can draw conclusions about the relevance of a particular value. In addition, at that moment when you climbed into the dictionary for this word, you at least have a context.

When we speak / write in a foreign language, the thought often arises: “Do the speakers even say that?” Translators in such cases use the following trick: the phrase that is checked is entered in the search string in any quotation marks. In this case, the search engine will search ONLY for a literal match: if you enter a phrase with an error, it will search with an error. But if your phrase occurs 10,000 times or more, and even on British and American sites, and not on Russian or Chinese, then you can say that.

It is often wise to use Wikipedia when translating technical terms, names of large facilities, educational institutions, settlements, proper names. First, there is a corresponding article in Russian, then the button on the left switches to English and we look at how a given locality, university or phenomenon is commonly called in English-speaking culture.